Difficult to talk about London Fields for very long without mentioning Saturday’s farmers market. In a typically contrary way, I prefer Broadway Market sans market. Which isn’t to say that I don’t appreciate having a farmers market on my doorstep. I know I sound like a spoilt brat and I do like parts of it. I really love the aforementioned mushroom sandwiches and the range of cheese sold by Hot French Cheese Guy is v good.
The Broadway Market Traders’ and Residents’ Association have done an amazing job in bringing a bit of community magic to E8 and it’s difficult not to admire a market that champions local people and produce. The people on the market clearly care about what they sell and how they sell it.
Patrick White, a former eastender (the place not the fun-filled tv show) recently wrote about the market in glowing terms though even he sounded a little miffed at paying ten quid for a lump of cheese. You can see his point. Regeneration, kids doing it for themselves, keeping Tesco at bay etc etc.
My gripes with the market are completely personal and more to do with stupid arses like me, than the market itself. I don’t like is being jostled by billions of boys in skinny jeans and pointy boots larking around being wacky. And I definitely don’t like queuing up for about 47 hours to get a beef burger, no matter how delicious and expertly reared it is. Broadway Market is ace around Christmas, pretty good throughout spring, but come summer it’s a mess of overly nonchalant thirty-somethings wielding babies like bazookas and idiotically dressed hipsters.
My other problem with the market is to do with my working-class hero evil twin syndrome. It’s not real. Real markets have fat men shouting about tomatoes, and blokes who’ve sold foam for twenty years hence earning the name “Jim the Foam”. Real market stall folk rely on guile and bloodymindedness throughout the winter months and charm the rest of the time. The stall-holders on Broadway Market sell lovely things for a lot of money. But they don’t have to make an effort. Some are friendly enough but most are too busy throwing organic chard to the seething trendy masses to have a bit of a chat. So the joy of market banter is lost. My dad had it in spades. He could charm the pants of an old dear at twenty paces. She’s have a tartan wheely trolley full of slippers for the whole family before you could say bargain.
Our farmers market is not really a market: it’s a tourist attraction. Somewhere to ponce about, meet your pals and pay four quid for a very posh butty. That’s fine in its own way, but I want markets to have good produce that you can afford. I want them to be the place where you go every week to buy all your fruit and veg. I want fat blokes and old blokes and little old ladies barging people out of the way with their trolleys. I want people to be there to buy food and not just for their lunch. I want the traders to make me laugh. Shopping at food markets would definitely go into my Top Ten Favourite Things Ever – but Broadway Market leaves me cold.
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deltaleague said,
November 16, 2008 @ 7:08 pm
“Jim the Foam” – this made me laugh out loud.
Excellent post from an excellent blog. Well done.
I feel the same about Broadway market, having both traded and shopped there on and off for about 2 years. I sourced and made what I sold, but I resented the amount of stalls that didn’t do this. Instead, many are branded mini-franchises, and its difficult to find out real information about what you are buying – one of the core ideas behind the farmers’ market movement…
Which, of course, Broadway isn’t – its a farmers -style market instead. A cursory visit to Stoke Newington’s affair confirms this. Strict rules mean that all traders are accredited organic or sourcing 70% of their primary material from t’others.
And lets not forget Ridley Road, Broadway’s slightly uglier and rather less fashionable twin sister. Without a doubt, my favourite place to watch “fat men shouting about tomatoes”
Keep up the good work – Derry
Ell said,
July 7, 2009 @ 3:15 pm
Some of the stalls are great value, like the butcher up the canal end on the right, who sells lots of sausages and cheap cuts like smoked hocks and bacon bits and beef skirt. Her meat is really good and not a rip off, it’s worth the trip for her alone. The caravan butcher once tried to sell me a few sausages and a bit of bacon for 11 quid and then ‘realised’ it was only 6 quid when i questioned him! The greengrocers with the cart who are there every day do a pretty good trade though, and their prices are fair. But yes, some of the traders are just having a laugh…. all the way to the bank. The big organic veggie stand at the London Fields end are about as rude as you can be while taking people’s money. But yeah, it’s nothing like Ridley Road…
Als said,
October 22, 2009 @ 7:29 pm
Ahh Bless you, you’ve captured the essence of the ordinary person who lives in the area all week and not just on Saturday! Personally (in fact most of my neighbours) tend to shop very very early on Broadway Market come Saturday morning, largely because of the madness, skinny jeans, families of 2-3 generations walking horizontally in a line across the pavement, and general pretentious people who look at you as though you are a backdrop/ film extra in a new bourgeoisie film.
Recently I stopped a young man, a non local resident from taking a picture of a drunk woman who is known to the area, he thought I too wanted to laugh at her misfortune, he said “well its ok she’s a f@&%ing drunk she doesn’t know” I said well she’s Our F@&%ing drunk, F@&% off, I couldn’t help it I was so outraged! On another note when the Market took off some 5 years ago I was pleased, I knew that this would be great for the shops on Broadway Market, and for the area generally, though most people cannot afford the prices of organic veg especially when the quality of John’s fruit and veg stall on Saturday and the other days of the week is Always consistently good!
I want to feel included in the general feel of the Market but I (and many of the local residents) find increasingly, we are met with stares of curiosity, Is it gentrification?
I want to be able to buy a lovely coffee in Gossips the best coffee shop on the Market (or do I mean least pretentious?) without being asked “have you just had a lovely massage next door at the Yoga place” “err no I actually live here” and so it goes on, Spirit at number 71 Broadway Market was once quoted by a national newspaper as being ‘the heart of the Broadway Market Community’. I suppose that was until Hackney Council took his business and kicked him out of his home, and lest we forget Tony who had the Francesca’s cafe, I’m still waiting for the Theatre development to happen in its place or was it another set of flats that local people will never be able to afford?
In the meantime lets celebrate the fact that the Market was featured in the 2009 Mercury Prize winning artist Speech Debelle video for her last single and various episodes of TV soaps and films. It is Lovely, It is vibrant, and a truly one of the most beautiful parts of London. That at least will never change.
Thanks for the lovely Blog page
The Glory of Ridley Road Market « Londonfieldslover’s Weblog said,
November 8, 2010 @ 2:00 pm
[…] me Ridley Road is everything that Broadway Market isn’t. It’s rowdy, messy, cheap and authentic. An ex boyfriend once described it as […]